Federal Budget
November 18, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Democrats have promoted the “Build Back Better” Act with the absurd claim that it will pay for itself–it costs nothing! So Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden have been nervously awaiting the Congressional Budget Office’s evaluation of the current version of the bill. The CBO may lean to the left, but it has employees who can add. Sure enough, earlier today the CBO released an estimate that, as I read it,
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September 30, 2021 — Steven Hayward
Scott has noted that Sen. Joe Manchin has “named his price point” on the spendapalooza bill: $1.5 trillion. Scott is right that this is still very bad, but it requires the progressives to shrink their wish list by more than half—by a full $2 trillion. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the House Democratic caucus meetings and sub-meetings right now, because if there is no honor
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September 27, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
In 2020, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed 23 freshmen Democrats for Congress. I’m tempted to say that if Congress enacts the Democrats’ massive spending packages, complete with tax increases and anti-business agenda items, the Chamber will have gotten what it deserves. In fact, I will say it. The Chamber is belatedly trying to avert this disaster and to limit the damage its improvident endorsements caused. It’s warning the Democrats
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September 27, 2021 — John Hinderaker
It is a basic rule of politics that if there is a government shutdown, it is the Republicans’ fault. If a Republican president or governor vetoes Democratic spending bills and portions of the government are briefly shuttered, it is the Republicans’ fault. Conversely, if a Republican Congress or legislature passes spending bills that a Democratic president or governor vetoes because they are not large enough, it is also the Republicans’
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September 27, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Joe Biden has made the absurd claim that his $3.5 trillion socialist boondoggle is free: That’s not what “costs zero dollars” means. https://t.co/ynULisP4CH — Brad Polumbo 🇺🇸⚽️ 🏳️🌈 (@brad_polumbo) September 26, 2021 The idea that a $3.5 trillion (or whatever the true price tag turns out to be) boondoggle “costs zero dollars” is ridiculous. It costs $3.5 trillion, and the cost has to be paid for through a combination of
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September 19, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Politico reports that the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, has decided that providing a pathway to legal status and citizenship for illegal immigrants is not a budget-related matter, and therefore cannot be enacted through the “reconciliation” process. This seems to mean that when the Democrats finally get around to passing budget reconciliation legislation, which they can do with a simple Senate majority, it will not include amnesty. To accomplish amnesty, the
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September 11, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Modern Monetary Theory has officially arrived. That theory, embraced by ignoramuses like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez but by no economists, to my knowledge, holds that a government can just print money and distribute it to taxpayers Democratic Party constituencies, with no ill effects. And it will be real money, representing wealth, that will raise everyone’s standard of living. It is hard to imagine anyone being dumb enough to fall for such nonsense
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September 8, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Joe Manchin reportedly has told the White House that he won’t support a reconciliation spending bill that exceeds $1.5 trillion. He might not even support one that exceeds $1 trillion, according to the same report. Without Manchin’s support, there can be no reconciliation package. Add $1.5 trillion to the roughly $1 trillion in the bipartisan infrastructure, and the price tag for Republicans losing the Senate comes to around $2.5 trillion.
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September 2, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Joe Manchin has thrown a monkey wrench into Democrats’ plan to pass, via reconciliation, a $3.5 trillion spending package on top of the trillion dollar (or so) bipartisan “infrastructure” bill. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed called “Why I Won’t Support Spending Another $3.5 Trillion,” Manchin states: The nation faces an unprecedented array of challenges and will inevitably encounter additional crises in the future. Yet some in Congress have
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August 17, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Almost every sentence of Joe Biden’s little talk about Afghanistan was dishonest, flawed, or both. Here’s one example. Biden said: Our true strategic competitors — China and Russia — would love nothing more than the United States to continue to funnel billions of dollars in resources and attention into stabilizing Afghanistan indefinitely. The U.S. was spending about $52 billion a year to support its military effort in Afghanistan and about
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August 11, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
By a count of 50-49, the Senate has voted to proceed with formulating a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. Joe Manchin provided the vote that enabled this. Almost immediately thereafter, however, Manchin said he is unlikely to support such a package once it is presented. Manchin explained that he has “serious concerns about the grave consequences facing West Virginians and every American family if Congress decides to spend another $3.5
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July 17, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Reconciliation is the process through which budget bills can pass the Senate with a simple majority of the votes. The idea, I take it, is that it’s so important to have a budget that the quest to pass one shouldn’t be subject to a veto by 41 Senators. The Democrats intend to pass a massive spending bill via reconciliation. The bill, once it’s actually drafted and proposed, will be full
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March 6, 2021 — John Hinderaker
This morning the Senate passed the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion spending bill on a party line vote, with every Democrat voting in favor. I take this to mean that there are officially no sane Democrats left. With something like $1 trillion still unspent from Congress’s last “covid stimulus” bill, the economic consequences of the current boondoggle, which has little to do with covid and a great deal to do with pork
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December 30, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Did you know that today is National Bacon Day? I didn’t—but then I tend to think that every day is national bacon day. Or at least ought to be. Maybe when Homer Simpson is president. In any case, our mind is on pork a lot at the moment because of the 5,593-page COVID relief and omnibus spending mashup Congress passed and President Trump reluctantly signed a couple days ago. There
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December 23, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump has denounced the stimulus bill Congress passed this week in response to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. The bill provides nearly $900 billion of “relief.” Most of the roughly $900 billion provides basic relief in the form of small-business aid ($325 billion), $600 checks for most Americans ($166 billion), and expanded unemployment benefits ($120 billion). Much of the remainder goes to things such as help for schools ($82 billion),
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December 23, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Congress passed a 5,600 page monstrosity of a spending bill yesterday doling out $2.3 trillion in total. Included in the $2.3 trillion is $900 billion in COVID-19 relief that gives $600 to most Americans struggling to cope with the epidemic. What’s $600 got to do with it? I don’t know. The relief bill also expands the Paycheck Protection Program for various businesses. I hope the alleged COVID-19 relief is as
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October 6, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Yesterday the stock market soared on the news of Trump’s improving health, and the thought that another round of robust fiscal stimulus would be forthcoming from Congress. Add to this accommodating monetary remarks from the Federal Reserve, and this morning it appeared the stock market would add on to yesterday’s decent gains—until President Trump abruptly pulled out of negotiations over COVID relief and new economic stimulus spending until after the
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